Chevtek.io (Page 3)

Rule #1: Don't talk about Stack Overflow on Stack Overflow.

I learned a lesson today when asking this question [http://stackoverflow.com/questions/5379469/how-to-remove-html-tags-from-user-content/5379810#5379810] . Never mention Stack Overflow itself when asking a question. Even if the question is blatantly a programming question, users will not read it and they will migrate it over to meta. When structuring

languages

Let's talk dynamic languages

Dynamic languages blow After trying to develop a few applications in JavaScript I was not impressed. The dynamic nature of the language thoroughly confused me and I felt like I had taken a step backward. I didn't have a compiler that would catch my errors, I didn't know what types

social

Being a control freak isn't such a bad thing.

If you've worked at a company with a marketing and an IT department then you've probably witnessed the classic battle for where to draw the line on what kind of control marketing has over website content. Where I work the marketing department will occasionally win one over on us (IT)

Express

How to toggle Jade layout in Express for Node.js

One of the awesome things I did in the ASP.NET MVC [http://www.asp.net/mvc] version of CodeTunnel was add the ability to toggle the view layout file on or off based on whether or not the incoming request was an ajax request. It ended up being as

CodeTunnel

The new CodeTunnel.com!

It's official, CodeTunnel.com is now a Node.js [http://nodejs.org/] application! I had to do quite a bit of learning in order to finish the application but it was well worth it. My blog is the first Node application that I've ever written. When I learn a new

C#

Extending our JsonModel to help with model binding.

In a previous post [http://codetunnel.com/blog/post/133/making-jsonresult-easier-with-json-model-objects] I talked about creating a JsonModel object to help when returning JsonResult from an action method. This is especially useful when you need to return the same data from several action methods. The JsonModel acts as a projection of

REST

Making JsonResult easier with "JSON Model Objects"

Lately I've been working with a client-side control library known as KendoUI [http://www.kendoui.com/]. KendoUI contains a grid control [http://demos.kendoui.com/web/grid/index.html] that ties seamlessly to a Kendo DataSource [http://demos.kendoui.com/web/datasource/index.html] object. The nice thing about the

Node.js

Node.js and the Express Framework

In a previous post [http://codetunnel.com/blog/post/131/nodetunnel] I decided to dive into Node.js. Since CodeTunnel is my own personal hobby project I decided it would be a good idea to re-write CodeTunnel in Node for practice and for fun. It has been a bigger undertaking

CodeTunnel

nodeTunnel();

If you've read even a few of my blogs then it's pretty obvious how much I love .NET. Some might even call me a "fanboy" of Microsoft tech. However, despite all that I think I've finally been intrigued enough by another language that I'm going to take a stab at

SignalR

Cannot have many tabs open with SignalR

I've been quite fond of a library known as SignalR. The library wraps several different communication protocols: Websockets, server-sent-events, and long-polling. You don't really need to know exactly what those are. Just know that they are each a form of continuous communication with the client browser directly from the server.

CodeTunnel

We're on Windows Azure Websites!

I have wanted to officially move all my stuff to the new Windows Azure Websites system for the better part of this year. Until recently [http://weblogs.asp.net/scottgu/archive/2012/09/17/announcing-great-improvements-to-windows-azure-web-sites.aspx] there was a big problem with Microsoft's model for Azure Websites. They generously offered

C#

Getting Your Database Back in Sync With Your Entity Framework Code First Model

I've been playing with Entity Framework 5 and Code First for the past few days. At some point during development of a new application I needed to update my model but could no longer afford to let the app just drop and re-create my database for me because I input

Visual Studio

Visual Studio Express 2012

Okay, I'm hooked. The 2012 express line of Visual Studio products is amazing. I am actively working on several hobby projects and I had decided to stick with the Visual Studio Express for Web [http://www.microsoft.com/visualstudio/eng/products/visual-studio-express-for-web] product to take it for a test drive.

C#

How to combine the Unit Of Work pattern and Repository pattern in an easy and intuitive way

How to structure my data layer in a project is something I have put a lot of thought into. It would seem that I'm a little OCD when it comes to code cleanliness and organization. Every time I write data layer code I end up pondering the same questions and

social

Use Code Names With Your Project or Suffer the Consequences

I have a story about failures in communication to tell so that others might learn from it. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- I have worked with a programming team long enough already to learn where many of the major breakdowns can happen during development. The biggest hurdle to overcome on any project is how

social

Password Leaks Are More Dangerous Than You Think

Yesterday it hit the news that LinkedIn.com was hacked and approximately 6.5 million passwords were stolen. The passwords were encrypted so they are not readable to the untrained observer. For example, all of linkedin's passwords were encrypted using one-way encryption called a hash [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/

TeamSpeak

How to add TeamSpeak 3 to the Unity Launcher in Ubuntu

I searched around for quite a while and just couldn't seem to find how to add custom applications to the Unity launcher (side bar) in Ubuntu. After much investigation I have found that applications that show up in the dashboard and on the Unity launcher have corresponding appname.desktop files

computers

Computers 101 - Part II

In part I [http://www.codetunnel.io/blog/post/118/computers-101--part-i] of this tutorial we went over the basic components that make up a computer and their major functions. In this part I will go over the basics of software for computers. I won't give you a history lesson because

computers

Computers 101 - Part I

I have been tasked with teaching my father in law, Steve, the basic fundamentals of computers for his new job. Steve's generation is about two generations older than mine so naturally the younger generations have an advantage when it comes to computers in general. I started learning about computers from

Google

Google Plus Might Stand A Chance

I had almost given up on Google Plus [http://plus.google.com]. I felt like they put out a superbly better social networking application than Facebook, but it didn't matter. I don't know a single person outside of my tech circle that has even considered switching over to G+. People

Git

Simplified Git Process

My team recently switched from SVN [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apache_Subversion] to Git [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Git_(software)] and it has been more difficult to transition than I had expected. I realized that I had some misconceptions about the way Git operates. For instance, in a

Entity Framework

Introduction to Entity Framework 4.3 Migrations - Part II

In Part I [http://www.codetunnel.io/blog/post/110/entity-framework-43-migrations--part-i] I discussed the new Entity Framework Migrations and why they are so useful. In this part I want to actually walk you through the process of building a code-first project and using migrations to make changes to your database

Entity Framework

Introduction to Entity Framework 4.3 Migrations - Part I

The more I work with Entity Framework [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ADO.NET_Entity_Framework] (EF), the more I love it. Each new release brings with it so many amazing new features that it's hard to keep up with them all. The team behind Entity Framework is working hard

Git

Comprehensive .gitignore for .NET Projects

If you are a .NET developer that uses source control then you know what a pain it can be sometimes to remember all the files you have to ignore. In SVN I would have to ignore my bin and obj folders every time I mapped a repository. One awesome feature

Git

Installing Git on Windows

In a recent post [http://www.codetunnel.io/blog/post/105/development-workflow-with-git] I outlined a new development workflow that my team is adopting using Git [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Git_(software)]. I've been using Git for my own projects for several days now and I finally feel like I